Who Is the Real Black Swan (Portman Did 5% of the Dancing?)

[Deeper_Background]

Who Is the Real ‘Black Swan’?
Wall Street Journal ^ | March 28, 2011 | Christopher John Farley


So who is the real “Black Swan”?

Ironically, a film about a ballerina who is haunted by a doppelganger is dealing with critical comments being made by a dance double who worked on the movie–and now the director is weighing in.

Sarah Lane, Natalie Portman’s dance double in “Black Swan,” told the Wall Street Journal this weekend that she did the overwhelming majority of the dancing in the film. “I should specify the actual percentage of dancing that Natalie did,” Lane said in one email. “They are saying that it was 85-90% of the dancing but I can tell you honestly that it was about 5% of the on-screen dancing.”
http://blogs.wSportsJournalists.com/speakeasy/2011/03/28/sarah-lane-and-natalie-portman-who-is-the-real-black-swan/

 

[MartinonMTV2]

Stunner that the actress would act and the dancer would dance.

 

[jr/shotglass]

This was the stand-in.

Great lighting job, I hear.

 

[Ace]

Stupid controversy.

 

[Deeper_Background]

Monday, March 28th 2011
The Percentage Game Continues! Sarah Lane, the professional New York ballerina who was Natalie's ballet doubles in Black Swan, opened the doors to Pliégate when she said that the Oscar-winning Ivy League saint didn't do most of the full body moves in the movie. Natalie's choreographer Benjamin Millepied slapped at Sarah's claim and said that 85% of the dancing in the movie came from his fiancee's body. Sarah came back and said it was more like 5%.

Now Black Swan's director Darren Aronofsky is joining the most boring math class ever and tells EW that his calculations show 80% to 90% of the dance shots are of Natalie herself. I'm just going to raise my hand and say that 100% of this ri-f'in-diculous, but let's let Darren go up to the Glenn Beck crazy chalk board and explain how he got to 80%.


“Here is the reality. I had my editor count shots. There are 139 dance shots in the film. 111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane. If you do the math that’s 80% Natalie Portman. What about duration? The shots that feature the double are wide shots and rarely play for longer than one second. There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement. Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie Portman.

And to be clear Natalie did dance on pointe in pointe shoes. If you look at the final shot of the opening prologue, which lasts 85 seconds, and was danced completely by Natalie, she exits the scene on pointe. That is completely her without any digital magic. I am responding to this to put this to rest and to defend my actor. Natalie sweated long and hard to deliver a great physical and emotional performance. And I don’t want anyone to think that’s not her they are watching. It is.”

Natalie better pop some Dramamine into her unborn baby's mouth, because she may have to throw down in a TWIRL OFF FOR HER LIFE before the Oscar Board of Governors! If Natalie wins, she gets to keep her OSCAH! If Sarah Lane wins, Natalie probably still gets to keep her Oscar because she won it for acting and not twirling.

And Natalie was going to ask Sarah to do the pushing for her in her labor video, but she's totally changed her mind now!
http://www.dlisted.com/node/41370#comments

 

[Inky_Wretch]

DEBKAfile doesn't have the answer?

 

[Ace]

Well, since this is out there, I did most of the stabbing and breaking things for Natalie in the move.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

As long as there wasn't a body double in the lesbian scenes with Mila, I could give a **** who did the dancing. :D

 

[NDub]

Portman has been defended by Aranofsky and Kunis.

Loved this movie. The DVD shipped from Amazon HQ yesterday and I should have it by Friday.

 

[txsportsscribe]

i'm guessing the dancer double won't be getting anymore film jobs. as for who danced how much? who cares, the lovely miss portman didn't win the oscar for her dancing abilities.

 

[Big Circus]

 

[Deeper_Background]

Dont mess with Portman, she'll cut ya!

 

[MartinonMTV2]

Dont mess with Portman, she'll cut ya!

Someone should cut you.

 

[Deeper_Background]

Mila Kunis defends Natalie Portman
Tuesday, March 29 2011, 4:44pm EDT
By Mike Moody, Entertainment Reporter Mila Kunis has defended her Black Swan co-star Natalie Portman against recent allegations tied to the film.

Dancer Sarah Lane, Portman's dancing double for the film, recently suggested that Portman only did around five percent of the full-body shots included in the final movie.

Lane claimed that she herself performed all of the pirouettes, the full-body dancing shots and the leg shots for the Oscar-winning film.

Kunis has now spoken out on behalf of Portman, saying that "Natalie danced her ass off" for Black Swan.

"I think it's unfortunate that this is coming out and taking attention away from [the praise] Natalie deserved and got," Kunis said, according to Popeater.

She added: "[Lane] wasn't used for everything. It was more like a safety net. If Nat wasn't able to do something, you'd have a safety net. The same thing that I had - I had a double as a safety net. We all did. No-one ever denied it."

http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a311775/mila-kunis-defends-natalie-portman.html

 

[shockey]

i haven't felt this dismayed over a dancing-double deception since the great jennifer beals/'flashdance' controversy....

what a buchacrap out of the 'whogivesaratsbutt?' book. hey, listen up, tabloidnation: am i supposed to care whether natalie did 5, 10,, 20, 40, 80 or 100 percent of the dancing in the role that earned her an OSCAR for ACTING? i don't think so. wake me up when another ACTRESS claims she, not natalie, recited 95 percent of her lines.

cripes... jane fonda won a well-deserved oscar playing a prostitute in 'klute;' if it had been revealed later her bedroom scenes were performed by a pro, why would/should it matter to me?

sounds to me like everyone conspired to get this "story" out there in time to boost dvd sales, so filmfreaks can slow it down and carefully dissect it, frame by frame, to get to the bottom of 'swangate.'

 

[dooley_womack1]

Pliegate!

 

[Buck]

Well, although it is an acting award and I think Portman was deserving, they did make a very big deal, as part of the marketing for the film and her performance, about the rigorous preparation and training she ednured because she was dancing the part.
It was part of the marketing and her award push. I think that makes it fair game for criticism.

 

[Ace]

Well, although it is an acting award and I think Portman was deserving, they did make a very big deal, as part of the marketing for the film and her performance, about the rigorous preparation and training she ednured because she was dancing the part.
It was part of the marketing and her award push. I think that makes it fair game for criticism.

They also made it clear there was a double for the difficult bits.

 

[Buck]

Well, although it is an acting award and I think Portman was deserving, they did make a very big deal, as part of the marketing for the film and her performance, about the rigorous preparation and training she ednured because she was dancing the part.
It was part of the marketing and her award push. I think that makes it fair game for criticism.

They also made it clear there was a double for the difficult bits.

Understood, and I think she was deserving of the award even if she only appeared in 5 percent of the dance scenes.
However, if you play up her dancing the way they did, you open yourself to criticism if it turns out you were misrepresenting the amount of dancing she did.

 

[Ace]

Well, although it is an acting award and I think Portman was deserving, they did make a very big deal, as part of the marketing for the film and her performance, about the rigorous preparation and training she ednured because she was dancing the part.
It was part of the marketing and her award push. I think that makes it fair game for criticism.

They also made it clear there was a double for the difficult bits.

Understood, and I think she was deserving of the award even if she only appeared in 5 percent of the dance scenes.
However, if you play up her dancing the way they did, you open yourself to criticism if it turns out you were misrepresenting the amount of dancing she did.

Fair enough.